mikes bike chalet HEAD HUNTERS Throughout northeastern India and parts of western Myanmar the Naga tribes were long fe

India s Northeast States, dangling way out on the edge of the map and the national perception, are strictly for explorers who want something different from their India experience. These remote mikes bike chalet frontier lands, where India, Southeast Asia and Tibet meet, are a collision zone of cultures, climates, landscapes and peoples and are one of Asia s last great unknowns. It s a place of rugged beauty where uncharted forests clamber up toward unnamed Himalayan peaks. It s a land of enormous variety where rhinoceros live in swampy grasslands and former head-hunters mikes bike chalet live in longhouses in the jungle. And it s an adventure mikes bike chalet in the truest sense of the word.

Assam s must-do attraction is an elephant safari to look for rhinoceros hiding in the expansive grasslands of this national park (h1 Nov-30 Apr, elephant rides 5.30-8.30am, jeep access 7.30am-noon mikes bike chalet & 2.30pm-dusk). Kaziranga s population of around 1855 Indian one-horned rhinos (just 200 in 1904) represents more than two-thirds of the world s total. The park consists of a western, central and an eastern range, but the central range is the most accessible, giving the best viewing chances for rhinos, elephants and swamp deer plus plenty of bird life (take binoculars).

Sumos have their booking counters in Jenkins Rd and run to Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh mikes bike chalet ( 250, eight hours) and Tawang ( 500, 15hrs). Bargain for a private taxi in the same street for the Eco-Camp at Potasali ( 1500) and Kaziranga ( 1500). A little further on is the bus station (Jenkins Rd) with frequent services to Guwahati ( 140 to 150, five hours), Jorhat mikes bike chalet ( 100, four hours) and Kohora for Kaziranga ( 45, two hours).

HEAD HUNTERS Throughout northeastern India and parts of western Myanmar the Naga tribes were long feared for their ferocity in war and for their sense of independence both from each other and from the rest of the world. Intervillage wars continued as recently as the 1980s, and a curious feature of many outwardly modern settlements is their treaty mikes bike chalet stones recording peace settlements between neighbouring communities. It was the Naga s custom of headhunting that sent shivers down the spines of neighbouring peoples. The taking of an enemy s head was considered a sign of strength, and a man who had not claimed a head was not considered a man. Fortunately for tourists, mikes bike chalet headhunting was officially outlawed in 1935, with the last recorded occurrence in 1963. Nonetheless, severed heads are still an archetypal artistic motif found notably on yanra (pendants) mikes bike chalet that originally denoted the number of human heads a warrior had taken. Some villages, such as Shingha Changyuo in Mon district, still retain their hidden collection of genuine skulls. Today Naga culture is changing fast, but it was not a government ban on headhunting that put an end to this tradition but rather the activities mikes bike chalet of Christian missionaries. Over 90% of the Naga now consider themselves Christian.